[Review] Hall of Judgment

GURPS Dungeon Fantasy RPG

Explore a Viking-flavored world trekking through cold, harsh mountains, facing dangerous faerie, and searching for a lost holy place, and the priceless relics within

An adventure for 4-6 250-point GURPS DFRPG characters.

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First review! Relative to other reviewers (Melan, Bryce), I plan to differentiate in two main ways:

• I will only review modules that I’ve actually run

• I will include heavy analysis

As a consequence of these principles (as well as my general writing habits), I expect to create far fewer reviews. Onward!

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Other reviews: Blind Mapmaker, Greyson Yandt, Octopus Carnival, Dungeon Fantastic, Psuedoboo.

The Hall of Judgment is interesting to me because it is the force that pushed me into the rabbit hole of adventure design theory. I tried to run it as written and failed so utterly that I began to study and labor. I read every article on The Alexandrian, and the Links To Wisdom. I read reviews by Melan, and Bryce. I absorbed theory from Dreaming Dragonslayer and BASTIONLAND. I read every issue of Knock!

I found this cathartic because I found the Hall of Judgment so frustrating and thought it was me. It wasn’t; it’s just that I hadn’t properly internalized that some adventure design is bad. Prior to running the Hall of Judgment, I had run The Lost Mines of Phandelver, Storm King's Thunder, Curse of Strahd, Extinction Curse, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Abomination Vaults, and Agents of Edgewatch. I enjoyed some of these more than others, but generally knew how to run them. The Hall of Judgment baffled me.

The Book is 120 pages long and details 34 keyed areas. The bulk of its pages it spends detailing the town (15 pages), random wilderness encounters (6 pages), custom wilderness survival subsystems (4 pages), a grappling subsystem (4 pages), a bestiary (33 pages), and sample characters (19 pages). The actual adventure is described on 43 pages.

The Town

This feels very detailed in all of the wrong ways. Included:

• The history of the town

• Its natural resources

• Culture

• Minority Groups

• Guilds (furniture, mining, shipping, wizards)

• Laws and Customs

• Religion (10 gods detailed)

• Festivals (24 festivals detailed)

• Price adjustments (status implying items like weapons, armor, and clothes are more expensive, shields cost double, bastard and long swords cost 1.5x, 2h swords cost 2x, plate and segmented plate armor costs 1.75x)

Not Included:

• The names of any NPCs (two NPCs total have names: the mayor of the town and the questgiver)

• The names or descriptions of any adventure-relevant establishments (no inns, no shops, no taverns)

• Brewing conflict

Compare this to The Black Wrym of Brandonsford, wherein the author details the titular town in 4 pages, but includes:

• A rumor table

• The GM background

• The tavern (the clumsy fox), it’s owner (Bently), and it’s adventurer patrons (Lady Hilda, Squints, Drop Dead Ned, Malzazerick the Magnificent)

• Another tavern (Golden Egg Tavern), and it’s owner (Quinn; having his booze stolen by a fairy but thinks it’s Bently; offers reward)

• The general store and it’s owner Cedric (low on supplies from the dragon danger)

• Eric the Town Reeve (mutton chop, stressed; offers a reward for killing the dragon)

• Warwick the Smith (spied on by Ingrid; short on metal; offers magic armor)

• George the Hunter (has information about the dragon’s lair)

• Father William (sells healing, has beef with Ingrid, has historical knowledge)

• Igrid the Alchemist (spies on Warwick creepily, sells alchemical supplies, knows Vivian the witch of the woods)

• Farmer Gill (sells mules, knows town lore)

All this stuff is immediately gameable in all the ways that Hall of Judgment’s town isn’t. It’s generic enough that a GM can drop it into any setting, but specific enough that the GM doesn’t have to make up details. This is the sweet spot.

The Hook

The search for the Lost Hall likely begins when rumors around town lead to Geirolf Tyrthegn, a cleric of the God of Law who is convinced, against all counterargument, that the artifact and sword recently returned from the slain holy warrior Gyrid portend dire consequences and events in the Frostharrow, and perhaps in all of Norðlond.

Geirolf is in possession of both sword and relic (which he calls a tiwstakn); he is also in possession of the stolen manuscripts and maps from the Isfjall archives. He is actively looking for another group of thegns to rediscover the Lost Hall (the original Norðlond word thegn means a freeman warrior, also interpreted as “thegn (n): person who can kick butt and take names by any means, mundane or magical. See also: adventurer, delver, monster-chow.”)

Isfjall and its surrounds are hard-pressed. This is always the case: the town is prosperous but the life is hard, and its location near the Hunted Lands (Veiddarlönd) as well as the Frostharrow pose a constant threat. The Veiddarlönd has been particularly active of late, and if that’s not bad enough, reports of a surge in the dead rising have reached the hajarl.

…

Geirolf is convinced that the time is ripe to rediscover the Hall, and that the Hall, the activity of faerie in the frostharrow, the surge of demonic cult activity, and the growing instability of the magic of Lake Odin are connected.

Pro tip: He’s right.

In abstract, this is fine! There are local problems and a long-lost temple might have the solution. Here’s the trouble: none of this makes sense.

• The book includes no other references to demonic cult activity. There are no cult-based wilderness encounters, and no cultists are found or described.

• The book includes no other references to the magic of Lake Odin being disrupted. This is the only sentence in the book that references that something amiss might be up at Lake Odin.

• Logiheimli’s undead situation has existed for hundreds of years. Nothing is written about any event that would cause a recent surge.

• The Hall of Judgment was lost hundreds of years ago when a Glabrezu tried to get inside. It’s been trapped in there since, and appears to be totally unrelated to both the undead and cult activity.

• The faerie connection is real - a Faerie named Elunad (only detailed in the bestiary) wants access to the hall.

Additionally, the motivations are backwards! Rather than prepping a plot (the players travel to the hall where they’ll encounter a glabrezu), we should be prepping a situation! For instance, rather than make the players go to a plot, we should present them with a problem (maybe the cultists have summoned a powerful devil corrupting farmers) and going to the hall should be one way to solve it (maybe hall contains an artifact to defeat the demon).

The Clue

Geirolf can provide a very old map of the area north of Isfjall. He claims that the map was said to bear the location of the Hall, but that it faded over time. Nonetheless, he is convinced that the Hall is somewhere in the north portion of the map.

Geirolf is correct: the map does bear the location of the Lost Hall. To bring out the knowledge:

• One must state in the name of the God of Law that they seek the Hall of Judgment

• They must be holding or wearing the relic that Geirolf now possesses, called a tiwstakn or skilti.

• Someone must cast the Pathfinder spell as the other recites the prayer.

Unwritten: how the players are supposed to find this out. The hall is 100+ miles northwestish from the town as the crow flies. Even when the players get there, it’s still hidden - so wandering would be completely senseless.

The other way to figure out how to get there involves a 3-part ritual where one person must be reciting an oath to seek the hall and the other must cast specifically the Pathfinder spell (note: of the 17 included pre-gen characters, only the druid knows the Pathfinder spell). WHY!?

As a cherry on top, the text states:

There’s not much of an adventure if the players can’t find the Hall! There are other clues in Logiheimli ruins; Geirolf knows the fort was important to questors in the past and can direct the group there.

I’ve read through the Logiheimli section more times than I’d care to admit. The only thing I’ve found in the way of clues are the following:

• A polished stone slab contains an etching of the hall itself that will give bonuses to Navigation and the first real image of the Lost Hall in recent memory.

• A stone plinth that sits empty, but if the History spell is cast on it, will provide a faint image of a book into which the stories of individual questors have been written. The visible page makes mention of tiwstakn provided to questors, and later recovered either by its return, or by Logiheimli huskarls sent to retrieve them.

They get a bonus (what is the bonus? why is the number not provided?) to Navigation, but they don’t know where they’re navigating to. It’s also totally unclear why seeing an etching of the hall itself should give a bonus to Navigation.

The second “clue” is that the tiwstakn is important, which is something they should have already known from Geirolf! To make it worse, as written the History spell, when a caster expends maximum energy, only tells the caster about the last year. Given that Logiheimli has been abandoned for hundreds of years, as apparent from it being a complete overgrown ruin, the players would have no cause to go around casting History. Finally, none of the included pre-gen characters know the History spell!

I think there’s about zero chance that the provided hook was ever actually playtested. It reads like the Nordlond version of the Marauder's Map but the book forgot to have Fred and George tell Harry how to use it.

The Journey

Pictured above is the GM’s map. Marked are two paths out of town - one northwest and straight to the Hall, and one northeast and straight to Logiheimli. If the party goes to Logiheimli, there are two more routes - one west then north, and one north then west. Green routes are Lowlands (fatest speed, easy encounters). Yellow routes are Hills (medium move speed, medium encounters). Red routes are Mountains (slow move speed, hard encounters).

For the rest the article, I’m going to assume a pre-gen party of fighter, cleric, wizard, thief (the classic fantasy quartet). Going down the list, that gives us Guthmunder (fighter; 4 move), Palni (cleric; 3 move), Garja (wizard; 4 move), and Tomas (thief; 6 move).

The travel rules for Lowlands state:

Take the slowest encumbered Move of the party or walking animals, multiply by ×0.75 to account for the terrain, and that gives the party’s average speed in mph. Halve that again if it’s raining or snowing. In truly horrific weather (Dire Weather on the encounter table) … march at no more than 1 mph.

Simple enough - slowest speed is 3, so the party travels at 2.25 mph. We have a velocity now - how many hours can they travel for? The book doesn’t specify. How many miles must they travel? The book gives us a legend with hecking curved distances.

Measuring curve path length is not too hard, but god is it annoying. There’s a few good methods here, but what I ended up doing was printing out the map and then cutting a piece of string, overlaying that on the curve, and then measuring the strength length against the bottom legend. Why this map couldn’t have been overlaid with a hex or a grid is beyond me.

Best Estimates

Route 1 - Isfjall → Hall: 48 miles of Lowlands, 64 miles of Hills, 26 miles of Mountains.

Route 2 - Isfjall → Logiheimli → West: 40 miles of Lowlands to Logiheimli, 22 more miles of Lowlands, 58 miles of Hills, 48 miles of Mountains.

Route 3 - Isfjall → Logiheimli → North: 40 miles of Lowlands to Logiheimli, 64 more miles of Lowlands, 36 miles of Hills, 44 miles of Mountains.

In terms of velocity, our party travels at 2.25 mph in Lowlands, 1mph in Hills, and 0.5 mph in Mountains. They travel at half of that in inclement weather.

It would take our intrepid adventurers 137 hours to complete Route 1 (with no bad weather), 181 hours to complete Route 2, and 170 hours to complete Route 3. If the party travels for 8 hours a day (which is standard in other games), we’re looking at 17 days for Route 1, 23 days for Route 2, and 22 days for Route 3.

Random Encounters

Each day, roll on the encounters table (1d for row, 1d for column), and consult the list for details.

Every day, one encounter. No more, no less. That means for Route 3, we’re going to have 22 RANDOM ENCOUNTERS before reaching the Hall. Here’s a sample log:

1. Lowlands. Hostile Faerie. A wandering troop of stóralf (how many?) comes across the party’s path. If they detect the party first, they veil themselves and set an ambush. If the party detects them first, the tables can be turned. This encounter will not take place during daylight hours.

2. Lowlands. Epic Animal. The party finds unmistakable signs of a gargantuan creature. Something large enough that the entire party could shelter in a footprint. A giant. A dragon with wings that blot out the sun. A mammoth the size of a hill.

3. Lowlands. Giant’s Skull. Recent weather has unearthed the skull of a giant. The skeleton will reveal (how does it reveal this?) itself as mildly magical, and if a palm full of bone powder is used to aid the casting of magic (how do you use it?) having to do with healing and growth, it will give +1 to the spell’s skill roll.

4. Lowlands. Hostile Faerie. Same as above.

5. Lowlands. Predator. A Mountain Cat (one single mundane mountain cat? ) will stalk the party, and attack if it can approach animals or a straggler within pouncing distance (there’s nothing else going on but random encounters; why would there be a straggler?). If it is attacked or after 1d×1d hours, it will lose interest and leave the area. Note: The party fighter, Guthmunder, attacks at 20 for ~18 cut, defends at 14, and has 3 DR. A Mountain cat attacks at 15 for ~5 imp, defends at 11, and has 1 DR. Playing out combat here is a waste of time. One potential encounter per day means that the repeated healing penalty doesn’t even create tension.

6. Hills. Drunk Warrior. The party bumps into a befuddled warrior who claims to have met another fellow along the trail not far away. He is pleasant, not aggressive, obviously drunk, and smells of mead. He tells a tale of an encounter with a red-haired man with a thunderous laugh and a seemingly endless capacity for drink. If pressed, he will indicate a direction. If the party searches, they will find the remains of a campfire, strips of cooked goat, and an impression in bare rock left by the head of an impressively heavy war-hammer. No traces of the red-bearded man can be found. If it is raining, the traveler will fail to notice that everyone else is getting rained on but himself. This encounter is best when immediately following a thunderstorm.

7. Hills. Cursed Hall. In the valley between hills is an impressive longhouse in good repair. Around it are numerous rock piles, on top of each are multiple runic warnings for “curse,” “bear,” “jarl,” and “faerie.” Inside, a well-dressed jarl is being kept from a table piled high with delicious-smelling food by two spectral bears (stats as Bear, but Undead, and add Diffuse). If the party can kill the bears, the jarl will reward each character with an ornate silver torc (0.65 lbs) worth $650 for the metal; a successful Merchant roll determines their actual value at $2,000 and the jarl will also invite them to dinner. The jarl will urge them to depart before sunrise, as the curse is eternal; the party have only bought one day’s meal—but it is the first the jarl has had in over 200 years. At sunrise, the entire longhouse and all the markers will fade and disappear; if the party remains, they will each take 2d FP damage as the house fades. Note: I think this is by-far the best-done encounter.

8. Hills. Sudden Downpour (dire weather). A heavy, soaking rain is accompanied by a significant (but short-lived) temperature drop (one level lower than it is currently; if it is already lethally cold, HT or survival rolls are at a further -3) that lasts for 4d hours. 1d/2 inches of rain will fall; multiply that by 1d+1 to determine snowfall depth if it’s Uncomfortably Cold! Note: Why does the amount of inches of rain or the snowfall depth matter?

9. Hills. Solitary Trapper. As the group travels, they come across a solitary trapper, hunter, or shepherd. Roll 1d:

   1. (1) They are desperate for any food that isn’t meat, and trade for fruits or vegetables at 4× the fruit’s value in animal pelts.

   2. (2) The trapper is jovial and invites the party to share a meal. While eating, the trapper attempts to get the party blind drunk, in order to rob them.

   3. (3) The trapper is desperate for company, and offers a fine meal in exchange for stories, especially from a bard or skald. They bring out their best wine (and it really is quite excellent), but the trapper gets so intoxicated that they undercook the meat. Each dinner guest— including the trapper—must make a HT roll at -2 or become nauseated for 4d hours. Note: Why does being nauseated matter? There’s one encounter per day.

   4. (4) The trapper is very knowledgeable about the current area, and will answer questions with Area Knowledge-15.

   5. (5) The shepherd’s flock was scattered by a predator, and has only recently been re-flocked. They may be willing to trade or sell animals to the party. Note: How much for a sheep?

   6. (6) The hunter is jovial, friendly, and has a campsite nearby that is the best ground in the area. Unfortunately, their last bath was many, many months ago.

10. Hills. Impassable Terrain. A rockslide, flood, avalanche, not-entirely-stable lake, or other terrain feature blocks the way. It will take 1d days to scout a new pathway; a successful Navigation roll halves this time.

11. Mountains. Impassable Terrain. As above.

12. Mountains. Corpses. 1d humanoid skeletons are found along the trail. Their weapons are rusted, their clothing rotted, and the food long-ago spoiled or eaten. One skeleton’s leg has clearly been broken in many places, and near one hand lies a stone carved with the words “Still Lost.”

13. Mountains. Druid Shack. Tucked into a cleft in the rock is a snug little shelter that, upon inspection, used to house a solitary druid. There’s nothing left in the shack other than long-ago abandoned implements of little value. It will, however, make an excellent place to stay the night, especially in tough weather. Note: What is the mechanical effect of having a place to stay the night? Or not having a place?

14. Mountains. Mountain Goats. This encounter has no associated description.

15. Mountains. Bandits. The party comes across 1d+3 bandits. They are hungry, dispirited, and unevenly armed, but dangerous and unpredictable nonetheless. Note: As with the Mountain Cat above; Bandits are significantly weaker than PCs. A Bandit attacks at 12 for ~4 imp, defends at 10, and has 2 DR. Funny enough, DFRPG does not include morale rules.

16. Mountains. Difficult Climb. The heights of the Frostharrow are the definition of challenging terrain. The pathway over a ridge requires scaling 3d×10 feet of near-vertical terrain. If the party is unwilling or unable to make the climb, it will take another 1d days to find a safer, less difficult path, halved with a successful Navigation roll. Note: Given that the party was explicitly given 4 mules to carry their supplies (more on this later), this is likely just another time sink.

17. Mountains. Rock Slide! The weather, the delvers animal’s footsteps, or a capricious faerie triggers an avalanche or rockslide that will directly threaten the characters. Each delver must take shelter behind something very solid (a man-sized boulder would do) or risk being swept down a steep slope. Those caught in the open must make an Acrobatics roll or suffer 2d crushing damage due to the impact of rocks and ice (DR protects normally).

18. Mountains. Corpses. As above.

19. Mountains. Druid Shack. As above.

20. Mountains. Druid Shack. As above.

21. Mountains. Flush Birds. As the party passes, a flock of game birds bursts from concealment to flee. Animals and delvers alike must make a fright check; the party might snag a bird or three if traveling prepared...or have to chase down panicked pack animals that are suddenly expressing a desire to be anywhere else. Note: What does chasing panicked pack animals down look like?

22. Mountains. Difficult Climb. As above.

23. Mountains. Druid Shack. As above.

By my count, the party adds about 6 days to their trip from stuff like Difficult Climb and Impassible Terrain. They then reach the Rope Bridge, and the next part of the journey ensues. But Wait, along the way they needed to perform Wilderness Survival!

Wilderness Survival

The book provides detailed math for doing ration bookkeeping:

The requirement for food while adventuring in temperate weather is the equivalent of 1.5 pounds (three meals) of concentrated rations and eight pounds of water per day. Game animals such as deer can be assumed to provide one third to one half their live weight in meat suitable for consumption, but they have less energy content than more domesticated meats. Treat 1 pound of fresh deer meat (or similar) or 0.75 pounds of beef or bison (or similar) as equivalent to one meal if the party cannot supplement with grains or other starches. If the party can supplement with beans, hard-tack, or other high-energy starches, drop the daily (raw) meat requirement by half.

We’re differentiating between meat-weight and grain-weight. WHAT.

So long as someone in the group knows Purify Water, they can be sure that any water they gather from streams, rivers, and puddles can be rendered potable.

The party does have access to this spell, right? Right? There are several other spells that make such necessities far easier to gather, including Create Food, Create Water, Essential Food, and more.

Fortunately, our pre-gen Wizard does indeed have Purify Water; lest we have to invent a getting-sick-from-water mechanic and it’s associated repercussions.

Meat spoils quickly if not preserved. The field-expedient method to do this is to immediately cut it into thin strips and smoke it using a fire, wet wood or greens, and an enclosed mini-tent. An expert can do this in four hours by making a Survival roll at +2. If they succeed by 1, it only takes two hours; success by 4 or more gets the job done in but one hour. Increase the difficulty in bad weather, due to limited supply of wood, or suitable fuel (-2 to Skill for each negative condition).

Ah, so we’re not only tracking meat-weight vs grain-weight but also raw-meat-weight, raw-meat-age, and cooked-meat-weight. Spending hours here extends the trip duration and gives us more days of encounters. All the while, we need to be tracking Temperature!

Fortunately, Palni can just Create Food and Create Water so as long as they keep the Cleric alive, none of this matters.

Temperature

Every day we roll 3d6 to get a temperature range (very hot, hot, comfy, cold, very cold), and then another 3d6 to see if it’s raining. Remember we move half-speed in the rain! According to the distribution, it rains about 1/3rd of the days, so more days of travel.

That all connects with the hazardous temperature rules:

In hazardous temperature, make a HT roll at the end of each 12 hour period, or if continuous activity stops. After a four-hour hike through uncomfortably hot weather, after setting up camp, or after a night’s sleep, make a HT roll at a penalty indicated on the teMPerAture Zones table. The HT roll is modified by activity level, clothing, shelter, traits, and—for hot weather—water intake.

Okay, so we’re rolling twice a day for time, once for camp, once for sleeping, and once when we stop moving (the random encounter), so 5 rolls every day. The following modifiers apply (this is going to be wild):

• -10 for very hot or very cold

• -4 for hot or cold

• +5 for (very) hot or very hot weather for lounging in the shade instead of moving

• +5 in (very) cold weather for activity like hiking

• -4 for winter clothes in hot weather

• -10 for arctic clothes (undescribed) in (very) hot weather

• -1 for being naked in (very) hot weather

• -2 for summer clothes in (very) cold weather

• -3 for being naked in (very) cold weather

• +2 for heavy cloak or blanket in (very) cold weather

• +1 per layer of extra clothes in (very) cold weather. can stack up to six layers. each layer costs $50 and weighs 2.5lbs

• +1 for finding a good campsite

• +2 for having a tent, +3 for fine tent, +4 for very fine

• +2 for sharing a tent with others

• +2 for having a campfire

• +1 for being Fit

• Temperature Tolerance Applies

• halve HT penalties for drinking an extra gallon of water in hot weather

• half HT penalties for drinking an extra 4 gallons of water in very hot weather

• -5 for not drinking a gallon of water in (very) hot weather

• the night is one degree colder than the day

• winds make it one degree colder (no wind rules are given)

• being wet makes it one degree colder

I suppose we calculate our normal modifiers then.

Garja the Wizard has a blanket, but no other clothes are specified, so let’s assume winter clothes. No other helpful gear. Guthmunder has only a blanket as well. Palni has a Sleeping Fur. Tomas has a Sleeping Fur and a 1-man tent.

• Time Roll 1 (3 am).

  • Very Cold:

    • Garja: HT 11 -10 (very cold), +2 (blanket), +1 (campsite), +2 (campfire) = 6. 9% success rate.

    • Guthmunder: HT 13 - 10 (very cold) + 2 (blanket), +1 (campsite), +2 (campfire) = 8. 26% success rate.

    • Palni: HT 12 - 10 (very cold) + 2 (sleeping fur) + 1 (campsite) + 2 (campfire) = 7. 16% success rate.

    • Tomas: HT 11 - 10 (very cold) +2 (sleeping fur) +1 (campsite) +2 (campfire) + 2 (tent) = 8. 26% success rate.

  • Cold:

    • Garja: HT 11 -4 (cold), +2 (blanket), +1 (campsite), +2 (campfire) = 12. 74% success rate.

    • Guthmunder: HT 13 - 4 (cold) + 2 (blanket), +1 (campsite), +2 (campfire) = 14. 91% success rate.

    • Palni: HT 12 - 4 (cold) + 2 (sleeping fur) + 1 (campsite) + 2 (campfire) = 13. 84% success rate.

    • Tomas: HT 11 - 4 (cold) +2 (sleeping fur) +1 (campsite) +2 (campfire) + 2 (tent) = 14. 91% success rate.

• Time Roll 2 (3 pm).

  • Very Cold:

    • Garja: HT 11 -10 (very cold), +2 (blanket), +5 (activity) = 8. 26% success rate.

    • Guthmunder: HT 13 - 10 (very cold) + 2 (blanket), +5 (activity) = 10. 50% success rate.

    • Palni: HT 12 - 10 (very cold) + 5 (activity) = 7. 16% success rate.

    • Tomas: HT 11 - 10 (very cold) + 5 (activity) = 6. 9% success rate.

  • Cold:

    • Garja: HT 11 -4 (cold), +2 (blanket), + 5 (activity) = 14. 91% success rate.

    • Guthmunder: HT 13 - 4 (cold) + 2 (blanket), + 5 (activity) = 16. 98% success rate.

    • Palni: HT 12 - 4 (cold) + 5 (activity) = 13. 84% success rate.

    • Tomas: HT 11 - 4 (cold) +5 (activity) = 12. 74% success rate.

• Stopping for Camp: As Time Roll 2.

• Sleeping: As Time Roll 1.

• Stopping for Encounter: As Time Roll 2.

Each failed roll causes 1d+2 (average 5.5) FP damage. Here are the expected values:

• Comfortable day, cold night:

  • Garja: 3 FP

  • Guthmunder: 1 FP

  • Palni: 2 FP

  • Tomas: 1 FP

• Cold day, very cold night:

  • Garja: 11 FP

  • Guthmunder: 8 FP

  • Palni: 12 FP

  • Tomas: 12 FP

• Very cold day, very cold night:

  • Garja: 22 FP

  • Guthmunder: 16 FP

  • Palni: 23 FP

  • Tomas: 23 FP

For expectation setting, Garja has 11 FP. Guthmunder has 13 FP. Palni has 12 FP. Tomas has 11 FP.

Extremely relevant - say that you fail your roll and lose 7 FP during the night - when do you start recovering it? Unlike the default DFRPG temperature system, it’s not a single roll for the day that reduces your FP max, it’s FP damage. Characters normally start recovering FP damage immediately when resting. When do characters recover this kind of FP damage? If it’s also immediately, then all of this is irrelevant - it’s just a mechanic to make them warm up by a fire and burn more hours and make the trip take more days and have more random encounters. If they don’t start healing FP damage immediately… when do they?

I’m having such a hard time imagining a world where a real life GM had their players play this subsystem verbatim. This feels like bad “art” using game mechanics as the medium for expression rather than a game mechanic that is intended to actually be used. Mind boggling.

Logiheimli

Should the party decide to venture to Logiheimli (because they have no clue how to get to the hall), endless encounters with skeletons await them, and oddly formatted room descriptions await the GM. The author’s house style is to key entries using 3 subsections “Challenge”, “Concealed”, and “Rewards”. More confusing is that the author uses nesting: “The Fortress and the Barrows” is an entry - the “Challenge” is that it’s infested with the undead, “Concealed” is some background history of the place, as well as information about the 3 cursed obelisks, and the “Reward” is that the temple has clues about the location of the Hall (it doesn’t btw). Then, later sections detail the rooms that make compose the Fortress or the Barrows, each with their own Challenge, Concealed, Rewards sections.

The author uses a conversational style to describe areas, heavy on wall-of-text and the only use of formatting or bolding is to point to rules references (names of spells and so on). Here’s an example:

The living quarters for those that lived in Logiheimli are located in area X, while those assigned to questors and other transients are at Y. As with all the longhouses in the ruins, there is a mix of stone, sod, and timber that has long since eroded into the barest remnants of structure.

Challenge. Skeletons will rise and attack any who draw near the buildings. There were 10-20 people in each of the longhouses

Concealed. The skeletons lie dormant in the ruins until a living creature approaches within 10 yards, then they spring up and attack.

Alternatives. Wise parties will be wary of undead once they’re attacked the first time, likely by the skeletal warhorses. A cleric or holy warrior will be able to keep most of them at bay, or even completely vanquish them. Destroying all three obelisks will de- animate the skeletons without a fight.

Rewards: If the skeletons are armed, the party can recover well-preserved weaponry in remarkably good condition given their age (full value; the ritual that animated the skeletons preserved the weapons). Characters who take the time to scrounge through the ruins thoroughly (at least an hour) can roll as a group against Scrounging (or Perception -5); each building ruin will have 3d×(1+Margin of Success) coins worth of valuables buried in it. Roll 1d: on a 1-3, the coin type is copper, on a 4-5 it’s billon, while on a 6, it’s silver. On a critical success, it’s tumbaga instead (exploits, p. 73)! The loot can be in coins or objects, at the GM’s discretion. Also, for each ruin, a scrap of parchment, clay or stone tablet, or an item that can be used as the subject of the History spell which reveal the pathway to the bridge across the river leading to the Lost Hall.

If I’m reading this correctly, this is saying that the PCs are going to get ambushed by anywhere from 40 to 80 Skeletons with HOLY COW THEY HAVE MOVE 8. Escape isn’t an option; the skeletons move twice as fast as the party. Fighting isn’t an option; there’s fkn ~60 of them. Negotiation isn’t an option; they’re skeletons. Absolutely wild. Each one is about as powerful as the aforementioned Bandits. Fortunately the cleric has Turning but this is still ridiculous.

The Temple has 12 (!?) ghouls. The Smithy has another ~60 skeletons for round 2. The Barrows have another pack of ~50 skeletons. There is no wandering monster table; all encounters are assumed to be static except at dawn and dusk (skeletons leave the barrows and return to the barrows respectively).

As a reward, the PCs get way too much loot. A spirit rewards the party with a $25000 sword. Then, there’s the niches:

There are 24 burial areas, and each has room for 4 bodies
…
The valuables for some of the wealthier questors are buried in a small niche beneath each body. For each search, roll 3d; on a roll of 8 or less, there’s something valuable still present, worth 6d×10 silver marks.

That gives 96 niches to search, and 8-in-3d is 26%, which averages out at ~25 niches with loot. 6d×10 comes out to ~210 silver marks per niche, and each silver mark (I’m assuming this is a silver) is worth $20. That totals at $105000 in coinage, which is $26250 per delver. Given that a week in town of modest expenses is $150, they could go retire comfortably for 3+ years. That’s enough money for heavily enchanted armor (+2 Deflect Shield for $10k, +2 Fortified Lightened Heavy Mail for $9.6k (7 DR Against everything but crushing), $6.6k left to spend on consumables like 48 Pauts or 41 Uncharged Universal Scrolls of Major Healing ($160; heals 8 HP).

The book remarks:

For each tomb pillaged, roll 3d again...on a roll of 6 or less, the skeleton’s animated spirit is enraged, and the creature transforms from a bound skeleton to an unbound vaettr, which can walk as it will. It somehow knows who stole its stuff, and will attempt to intercept and kill the thieves. Barrow pillaging is lucrative but perilous in Norðlond.

That translates to 9% per niche, which is ~9 vaettr. Hardly a problem. It’s also not something the players know, so the decision isn’t informed. Finally, can the players not break the curse and then loot the niches risk-free?

Rope Bridge and Approach

I think this is one of the more interesting ideas presented - there’s a shaky bridge about 80ft across 100ft above powerful river. The fall is deceptively deadly given how swimming in GURPS work and how only Guthmunder has any swimming skill at all.

The author devotes a lot of text here to handling IF→THEN player behavior rather than just detailing the river. Additionally, the drowning minigame is pretty unclear and drawn-out.

As a final spot of weirdness, the river deposits anyone who falls in on a sandy shore a few minutes from the bridge on the opposite side. Why the players can’t follow the river a few minutes and simply jump in and swim across to that shore is unclear.

In my actual play, the wizard casted levitation on everyone and floated everything over one at a time. He had to take some time to recover FP between each crossing; it took about 2h in-game and about 2 minutes in real life. Garja, unfortunately, has no such extremely useful spells learned (though she has the pre-reqs).

Ridge Path

After the party deals with the river, they’re likely either on the other side of the bridge or at the sandy beach. I think the book assumes here that if the party winds up at the beach, they’ll continue through “The Valley Path”, and then climb the rock face and end up at “The Sacrifice Gate”. If they crossed the bridge, they’ll fight the Ogres, then the enchanted tress in the forest, and wind up at “The Strong Gate”.

The book does not provide a player-facing decision here. As far as I can tell, the players still don’t know where the hall is, and I’m not sure how the players are supposed to know know they have a choice.

Here’s some text:

The mountain again becomes visible coming around the bend of the trail next to a hill Partway up the mountain, keen eyes (Perception at -3) might detect a feature that might contain an entrance. The party must cross a broad, flat valley filled with aspen and spruce trees, then ascend a rocky grade to what looks to be a set of stairs branching off the trail.

Emphasis mine. Why are the players looking for a mountain? Unclear. This is a nature trek; why must they cross this valley - can they not go around? 250 point characters can fly. So far as I can tell, this Perception check is the only indication that they’re on the right path (unless the GM is picking the path for them). This is the sort of thing that ought to be a huge, umissable telegraph rather than obscured information. It would be much more impactful if the party (with their magic tiwstakn) is able to see from miles away that this mountain has a huge, powerful magic illusion that they’re able to penetrate. I’d make a huge bas-relief of Tyr, or something like this:

The Ogre encounter is tepid. Nearly a page is written about this encounter:

The faerie lords and ladies—and one faerie sorceress in particular—wish to possess the hall to enhance their status among the Winterfae nobility.

The opposite side of the rickety bridge across the gorge places the group on the crest of a wide sway of hilly and forested terrain. The pathway and the hills vary between lightly and heavily wooded. There is not enough foliage to completely obscure the trail; neither is there so little that a clear path all the way to the tower can be seen.

The trail bends and turns from hill to hill, occasionally dipping into a low section between hills before coming back to the top. It is in one of these valleys that a faerie sorceress has her minions lay an ambush.

Challenge. The sorceress can’t interact with mortals herself, for reasons having to do with how the tiwstakn relic and the holy sword came to Geirolf in Isfjall. Instead, she has chosen a single storalf elder, along with three brutish thurs (a type of mountain troll) to ambush the party as they pass. The ambush has been set less than a half-mile from the foot of the bridge.

The stóralf elder is present to keep the thurs on target since they’re none too bright. He will not engage directly in battle, only observing and reporting. The stóralf will use his faerie glamour and stealth skills to remain hidden if possible. He has been given a glass- and-bronze bead that, if crushed, will not only render himself invisible (though it will end if any aggressive action is taken, per the spell), but will help foil the effects of See Invisible, requiring a Perception check at -10 to notice the stóralf even with See Invisible (the Winterfae are excellent at this sort of thing)! He uses this to aid escape, not to engage in combat.

The thurs begin widely separated, with two throwing heavy rocks at the party from ahead, to draw their attention. At an opportune moment, the final thurs shrugs off its glamour and charges into the rear of the party, first slamming with its greatclub, and then closing the distance to grapple, claw, and bite. If the initial grapple fails, it will pummel the target into jelly with its club. As soon as the third thurs emerges, the other two cease throwing rocks and engage in melee.

The thurs are brutes, and if brought to lower than 10-20% of their hit points, may break and flee. Make a Will roll for the thurs at +3; success has their fear of their faerie masters overcoming their fear of death and they’ll stay in the fight. Failure means they flee the valley and become someone else’s problem as a wandering monster...or the players’ problem again on the way out.

Alternatives. Go around. The ambush is set at the foot of the bridge, and assumes that the delvers will take the easy way down the trail. The stóralf and thurs will need to make Perception rolls to notice the characters detouring around the ambush site... and then it’s a contest between the best scout of each party...and thurs just ain’t that subtle. The thurs will start attacking from concealment if they can, but poor perception and low stealth—even with the faerie veil— gives the players a very real chance to either avoid the encounter or stage a counter-ambush.

Intimidating the thurs will be challenging: they use ST-based Will rolls to make and resist Intimidation checks as bullies. Bargaining with them will run into the leadership of the stóralf elder and their fear of Elunad the faerie sorceress.

Reward. The three thurs carry $3 in copper, $8 in copper, and 1 lb. of cooking spices worth $10. The stóralf has a bronze mace in addition to a bronze shortsword and compact short bow, and has a bloodstone pendant worth $250 around his neck. The charm that will cast Invisibility (at Skill-20), but will only work on those with faerie ancestry but is worth $1000 if intact.

This works…poorly with the mechanics. Thurs are SM+2 (helps to be seen), have Faerie Veil 2 (+4 stealth while still, +2 stealth while moving) but no Stealth skill.

Stealth defaults to DX-5 or IQ-5 meaning the Thurs would have a 4 Stealth skill. Furthermore, Stealth isn’t supposed to used to hide in the wilderness, that’s Camouflage! Nonetheless, the custom Faerie Veil trait says:

Quick Contest of Stealth against any observers’ Perception to hide as a Concentrate maneuver.

So, the hiding thurs is making a Quick Content of 8 Stealth against Garja’s 15 Perception (4% success), Guthmunder’s 10 Perception (28% success), Palni’s 14 Perception (6% success), and Tomas’s 14 Perception (6% success). The chance succeeds at all 4 would be `0.04 • 0.28 • 0.06 • 0.06 = 0.0004%`. The players are going to see the hidden Ogre. This is an example of Rolling To Failure.

After that, there’s the enchanted tree encounter.

Whomever is closest to the remains will draw the attention of 1d vaknatré immediately. The remainder attack other party members randomly.

The text doesn’t specify how many enchanted trees there are (this is a recurring theme), but the map highlights 5 trees in pink (providing no legend), so let’s assume this is supposed to be against 5 enchanted trees.

The trees attack at 16 for ~14 crushing damage (puts everyone but Guthmunder to negative HP) (or ~19 control damage; more on this in the grappling subsystem analysis), and have a reach of C-4. They defend at 11, have 4 DR (Only Guthmunder can actually do damage), and 31 HP and have 5 Move (more than anyone but Tomas). This encounter is numerically brutal.

Finally on this path, they reach “The Strong Gate”

The gate itself has been ripped from its hinges, and the heavy wood-and-metal doors are lying inside the inner waiting room.

I think it’s supposed to be implied that the Glabrezu is what ripped it from its hinges, which is odd given that the Glabrezu only has 25 ST (8 more ST than an Elk, 6 less ST than the enchanted trees) (basic lift of 125 lbs). Fiction doesn’t seem to fit the mechanics.

Just inside is an encounter with almost entirely harmless imps (attack at 12, 1d6-4 damage; they can’t injure Guthmunder). The author doesn’t bother to specify how many imps there are.

Then, players can loot the entrance area. For some godforsaken reason, the loot is obtusely generated:

There are 2d6 areas where loot might be found; finding one requires success at a Perception roll at -3 (make the roll once, for the best active searcher). Roll on the following table to determine what is there, or use a low-level individual treasure of your own making.

So, an average of ~7 areas that might have treasure, and then we’re rolling Perception that many times to see if each area has treasure. (Total so far: 8 rolls). Garja has the best Perception at 15, which means we’re rolling at 12 (74% success); giving us an expected treasure count of ~5.

For each treasure they find, you roll another 2d6 and consult a table (Total so far, 13 rolls). Here’s a sample haul from me going through this process with 5 treasures:

• $300 worth of platinum

• $140 worth of electrum

• $0.6, 3 bronze knives, small bracers that would fit a norðalf

• $300 worth of platinum

• $8, iron spikes (how many?) and a tarnished silver mirror

What is the point? Why not provide an already-generated horde? I don’t get it. Why are we rolling 13 times for such a low impact? The game grinds to a halt as the GM figures loot rather than being able to just gleefully read it off.

The Valley Path

This was the other way to go (assuming that the party somehow divines this is a route and doesn’t follow the river back to the bridge and keep going).

As the party washes up on the shore, a pack of dire wolves watches them, waiting to attack. There are 1d+3 animals in the pack. Each minute that a PC washes up on the beach, the wolves roll Perception at -3, +1 for each party member washed up on the beach; if they succeed, they know that dinner is served. Once the dire wolves detect the party, they will maneuver for a minute (Perception at -1 to detect their motion and soft growls), and then attack.

Some specificity! There are 1d6+3 wolves (unclear why scripted encounters don’t have a specific number of wolves, but this is better than nothing). The module creates time-pressure (which is good). The wolf has a 15 Perception, so rolling against a 12 gives them a 74% chance of success every minute. There’s a 74% chance the wolves attack at 2 minutes, 19% chance they attack at 3 minutes, 5% chance they attack at 4 minutes, 1% chance they attack at 5 minutes and so on.

This also implies that the GM needs to properly adjudicate how long it’ll take for the party to catch up with their friends. This is where it gets tricky, because the module doesn’t explicitly define how far the beach is away from the bridge. But, we can infer it if we go to great lenghts:

Anyone that falls in the water will be carried downstream at Move 3 (6 mph). The river at the gorge is quite deep—perhaps 100’—but gets rocky and shallow very quickly, forming brutal whitewater stretches that surge forward at Move 6 (a mile every five minutes).

The Swimming rules call for a roll every 5 seconds; this lower resolution method substitutes a single roll per minute at -1

Once the ten “rounds” have elapsed, the current will deposit the character (or their unconscious or dead body) at a shallow bend in the river, wide and flat, perhaps knee-deep.

Putting this together, the characters in the river get deposited on the beach 10 minutes after they fall in. The beach carried them at 6mph for 5 minutes and then at 12 mph for 5 minutes. This is a total of 1.5 miles. It takes a character running at Move 3 (6 mph; Palni) 15 minutes to arrive. Move 4 (8 mph; Guthmunder, Garja) takes 11.25 minutes. Move 6 (12 mph; Tomas) takes 7.5 minutes.

The weird part is how railroaded the drowning minigame feels:

The gorge is steep and narrow. Swimming to the sides will not help.

Why won’t the sides help? Is there never rocks or fallen timber to grab on to? Can faster characters like Tomas not throw the drowning character a rope? It feels like the fictional danger doesn’t match the mechanical danger here (keep in mind that 250-point GURPS characters are powerful; about the equivalent to level 6 or 7 D&D characters).

The wolf encounter painstakingly details morale rules:

• If any other wolf fails a morale check, the entire pack must also check morale that round

• If any wolf is killed, the pack makes a morale check

• If any wolf is forced to make a HT roll due to a loud noise, such as the Thunderclap spell, the pack makes a morale check

• If any wolf is outnumbered three-to-one, that wolf must check morale

• If any wolf takes burning damage, that wolf must check morale

So say that we’re fighting 6 wolves. One of them is killed (killed in DFRPG is weird wording in this context; a character that fails HT save goes unconscious but does not die immediately; I’d prefer for the wording to say ‘knocked unconscious’). Wolves have a 14 morale for these purposes (91% success). So the other 5 wolves roll morale and we expect ~0.45 wolves to fail, so about a 50% chance another wolf breaks. That was also five die rolls each of which is 3d6.

Say one wolf fails and runs; now they are four wolves left that all have to check morale again. There’s around a 1/3rd chance that a wolf flees from this, and we’ve made 4 more morale checks (9 total now, still first round; rolling a total of 27 dice).

For comparison, here’s the OSE rules. Roll 2d6 <= Morale when the first wolves die or when half the wolves die, or some other scary event (like fire or loud noises). Success means the pack fights, failure means the pack flees. Wolves have 8 morale; which gives them a 72% chance to succeed. This would be a total of 2 rolls for mostly the same effect.

The valley itself features goblin ambushes (packs of ~16; these are cool fights) and mini dungeons which are… sloppy.

South Warren

The South Warren describes an Inner Foyer (Trap A), Trap B, A Common Room, Bowling for Boulders (Trap C), Sleeping Chambers (A and B), Clan Leader’s Room, and a Treasure Chamber. If you’re wondering which room is which, so was I. Using map logic, and following the descriptions, I think it looks like this:

Why the areas weren’t keyed in the first place (or why we’re using a ruler to measure distance instead of hex overlay; GURPS is a hex game) is unclear.

The encounters involve fighting lots of goblins (10+ in a fight) or rolling skill checks to disarm traps. There are three curiosities:

• The author forgot to include a description for Trap D (the trap between the throne room at the treasure vault).

• The clan leader is written to be by themselves (but with marginally higher combat stats that still put them at about 1/3th of Guthmunder’s prowess).

• The treasure chamber (and the other purplish passages) are in the shadow-realm and only the faerie can use them.

The warrens of the norðalfar are not entirely in the same world as the mortal realm, and they extend into Svartalfheim, the shadow-realm of the faerie. The faerie can use these hidden tunnels to seemingly disappear into nothingness, and it takes the right kind of magic for non-alfar to follow.

The author does not bother to specify what “the right kind of magic” is.

North Warren

More unkeyed areas, more unaccessible purple rooms. There’s an Entrance, Ambush, Sleeping Chambers, Common Room, Arena, Council Chamber, Magic Circle, and Treasure Hoard. Here’s what I was able to put together:

The yellow triangles with letters are, as far as I can tell; the book doesn’t make it explicit, non-detectable teleports. IE, if you walk north out of the sleeping chambers to X, you’ll continue north to the Common Room. This is a pretty cool idea, except that all of the teleports are locked behind purple areas which take the same unspecified “right kind of magic” to enter.

For all intents and purposes, this is the dungeon from the player’s perspective:

Totally linear.

There’s an odd bit about the magic circle:

To remove the circle requires a combination of Nature, Magical, and Holy power: if a wizard, a druid, and a cleric each cast Dispel Magic simultaneously with Magery, Power Investiture, and Nature’s Strength of 4 or higher as a ritual, the circle’s connection from Svartalfheim will be severed.

Unspecified: How the characters would ever learn this. Garja has Magery 3, Palni has PI 3, and Hrothgirr, the pre-gen druid, has PI 4. This also ties back in to there being no named NPCs in town - if the players wanted to enlist some higher level characters to shut down the magic portal from Faerie to Midgard, the GM is making those characters up!

The Hall of Judgment

After braving their 23 days of wilderness travel encounters, the party arrives at the hall. It has, in effect, two rooms. One described above with limp imps and randomly rolled treasure, and an optional fight against a Glabrezu (if you let it go, Tyr teleports from Asgard to berate the players. Why he didn’t teleport from Asgard to berate the Glabrezu is unclear). The author takes two and a half pages to describe the Glabrezu and its tactics (mother of god), then repeats much of this information in the bestiary over two more pages. 4.5 pages of Glabrezu. The Glabrezu interacts heavily with the Grappling Subsystem (analysis right after this). The author does a good job giving a single-enemy encounter enough action economy for this to be a cool fight.

If the players simply charge in, and have no plan and no foreknowledge of the demon’s capabilities, some may die. Frankly, they should. The demon has been there for hundreds of years, trapped. It’s not going anywhere. The characters have time to plan, or even withdraw back to Isfjall and get reinforcements. What to do?

Unwritten: any chance for the characters to gain foreknowledge of the demon’s capabilities. There are no rumors in town, further:

The demon found the place accidentally, as its immunity to illusion and mind control allowed it to bypass the illusions protecting the place.

It’s not even here on purpose! It arrived hundreds of years ago! How is there supposed to be existing evidence to foreshadow the Glabrezu? How should the players be prepared? This heavily violates the Three Clue Rule. Better would be for:

• Clerics of Tyr to have nightmares for centuries about a huge shapeshifting crab demon.

• The same cult that cursed Logihemli to have summoned the Glabrezu, and for the party to find a journal or scroll about it.

• The asguardians indirectly providing information about the Glabrezu during some of the wilderness encounters.

After the Glabrezu is dealt with, the party find’s Tyr’s Book of Law (fragile, literally priceless; the book doesn’t say how much such a treasure is worth if anything). Then Sif teleports from Asguard and give each one of them a $5000 bangle and the handsomest party member a smooch. The reward for completing the quest is worth less than the magic axe given to the party in Logiheimli, and 1/5th the value of the silver they looted in the barrows.

No rewarded is provided by the Geirolf (his reward was paid up-front in the form of expensive mules).

So they journey all that way for effectively one encounter and little reward. The find out the (extremely powerful) gods can teleport any time they want and could have solved this themselves in a few minutes but instead just let the Glabrezu chill there for hundreds of years. Unbelievable.

Grappling Subsystem

The gist is that you have grappling skill and Control Damage. You attack to hit a hit location and the defender can dodge/block/parry as with regular attacks. If the attack hits, you do your control damage. The victim tracks how much control damage they have from each source and compares that to their Control Max (typically equal to lifting ST, which is typically equal to ST). Different thresholds of Control Damage relative to Control Max cause increasing DX penalties (which affects attack skill, parry skill, and dodge).

1. CP >= 1/10 CM: -2 DX

2. CP >= 1/2 CM: -4 DX

3. CP >= CM: -6 DX

4. CP >= 1.5x CM: -8 DX

5. CP >= 2x CM: -12 DX

So you apply CP to things which gives them DX penalties. They’ll have a hard time attacking back or breaking free on their turn (due to the penalties), and you’ll have an easier time applying more CP in the future. Once you have points, you can spend them. I’ll focus analysis on three main ways to spend CP: on increased skill (1 cp per 1 skill), on increased damage (3 cp per 1d of extra damage), and on increased defense (1 cp per 1 skill).

For example, say that a Glabrezu (22 skill for 3d6+5 cp) wants to grab Guthmunder (14 parry, 11 block). The Glabrezu should target Guthmunder’s sword arm (-1 to hit) using Deceptive 4 (-8 to attack; -4 to defense). The Glabrezu attacks with 13 (84%), and Guthmunder parries at 10 (50%) for an expected value of 42% chance to hit. If Guthmunder successfully paries, the the Glabrezu can attack again at 84%, and Guthmunder needs to block at 7 (16%), which is an expected value of 71%. Together, this means that we’d expect the Glabrezu to land 1.13 attacks without including the penalties for if the first attack lands.

Here’s the Glabrezu’s damage distribution:

Guthmunder has the following Control Max thresholds: 1/10x: 2, 1/2x: 8, 1x: 15, 1.5x: 23, 2x: 30, meaning that we have the following penalties probabilities:

1. -4 DX: 37%

2. -6 DX: 63%

3. -8 DX: 1%

More likely than not, if he gets hit he’s going straight to -6 DX (-6 attack, -3 parry, -1 dodge). We’re doing an average of 15 CP here. If the Glabrezu lands the first attack, they can follow up with an attack to the skull (-7) spending all 15 CP on skill and then using Deceptive 7 (-14 to hit, -7 to defense) giving themselves a 16 to hit (98%) and Guthmunder a 4 (2%) to block, which hits 96% of the time (and crits 9% of the time). This blow does 15 crushing damage to the skull (dr 5; 4x multiplier) for an average of 40 damage (puts Guthmunder at -25 HP, which is more than 2x his HP), and makes Guthmunder roll HT at -10 for a 3 (0.5%) in order to not pass out (and then die in a few seconds).

This is, more or less, the way of it. Getting grabbed feels like a death sentence, and only the wrestling specialist (who is wildly overpowered) has any way to meaningfully interact with the system. Breaking grapples involves attacking (at a penalty) and then using the CP dealt to reduce the CP they inflicted on to you. Unfortunately, the grappler can spend CP to dodge your counterattack after seeing that you’ve already hit, and the spent CP is 1-for-1. This costs relatively small amounts of CP to gain huge avoidance boosts (spending 3 CP to go from 11 dodge to 14 dodge is boosting dodge from 63% to 91%).

Additionally, grabbed characters cant use concentrate; meaning they’re totally blocked from using spells.

The best way to interact with grappling characters (the Glabrezu and enchanted trees ) is to make sure that the mage learns Blink Other and immediately casts it to free anyone who gets nabbed. It feels hopeless other than that. System is in serious need of a numbers pass.

Verdict

Would not recommend running or buying.